Past events

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REVIEWER MEETS REVIEWED

SEMINAR SERIES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM'S ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTRE

The Life of Property: House, Family and Inheritance in Béarn, South-West France

Thursday 17th January at 10.00 am (tea & coffee served from 9.30 am)

Anthropology Library and Research Centre, British Museum

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

The British Museum’s Anthropology Library and Research Centre, in conjunction with the Royal Anthropological Institute, is pleased to present the second seminar in the 2012-13 series of ‘Reviewer meets Reviewed’, a discussion between Dr Timothy Jenkins, author of ‘The Life of Property: House, Family and Inheritance in Béarn, South-West France’, and Professor Robert Layton, who reviewed the book for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

In Béarn, longstanding and resilient ideas of property and practices of inheritance control the destinies of those living there. Based on extensive fieldwork and archival research that combines ethnography and intellectual history, this study explores the long-term continuities of this particular way of life within a broad framework. These local ideas have twice found expressions at national level. First, sociological arguments about the family, proposed by Frédéric Le Play, shaped debates on social reform and the repair of national identity during the last third of the 19th century. Second, these local ideas entered into late 20th century sociological categories through the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Through these examples and others, the author illustrates the multi-layered life of these local concepts and practices and the continuing contribution of the local to modern European national history.